U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, is co-sponsoring a resolution to censure President Trump for failing to immediately condemn white supremacist groups by name after the violent rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend.
The resolution was introduced by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, and co-authored by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J.
In addition to condemning Trump’s statements that anti-hate protesters share the blame for provoking the violence, Pingree has called on Trump to fire top White House advisers who she says have urged Trump to cater to white supremacist groups.
The text of the House resolution also calls for Trump to fire any White House advisers who cater to “the alt-Right movement in the United States.”
“From the White House to the State House, elected leaders must acknowledge and denounce the violence in Charlottesville as an act of domestic terrorism by white nationalists. To call it anything else is an injustice to those who confront bigotry every day and those who lost their lives in Virginia last weekend,” Pingree said in a written statement. “Thousands of Mainers have called, written, or commented online saying they are disgusted that President Trump is unwilling to disavow white nationalists. I share their views and believe that there must be consequences for this type of reckless rhetoric from elected officials.”
According to a report by The Hill, there have only been a few serious efforts to censure U.S. presidents. No president has been censured by both the House and Senate.
The Senate voted once to censure a president, rebuking Andrew Jackson in 1834 for taking actions to dismantle the Bank of the United States. The Senate revoked the resolution three years later.
The House has considered such resolutions a handful of times, such as against John Tyler in 1842 and against James Buchanan in 1860.
Some lawmakers unsuccessfully called for a censure of President Bill Clinton as an alternative to his impeachment trial in 1998.
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